Ridiculously underrated Dutch film on football/soccer, gambling, rigged games, and gangsters. Well done and engaging. Well made sports scenes may also be highlighted.
Plot summary
Professional football player Jermaine Slagter (32) is the defensive hub at FC Barkas, a people's club from professional football's lowest tier. Following a long period of drinking, sleeping around and lots of gambling, his wife Naomi left him, taking their daughter Joy with her. Jermaine is doing everything he can to keep his life on track so he can win back Naomi and Joy. But his body is slowly giving out, and his position as team captain is no longer secure. When Naomi has had enough of his destructive behavior and rejects him again, Jermaine ends up in the very place he was determined to avoid: an illegal gambling den. He borrows EUR100.000 there and loses it in a short time. Jermaine only has three weeks to pay back the money in order to keep the matchfixing syndicate from taking him in a stranglehold. On top of that, his position as a starter is increasingly under threat. As the clock winds down on the deadline, Jermaine plays the most important game of his life to keep everything from falling apart and to avoid losing his family for good.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
Director
Movie Reviews
Reviewed by
Good and very underrated
Reviewed by
Gritty drama from Netherlands
This film has everything from a film noir: atmosphere, characters relationships, photography, everything, except gangsters and guns. Yes, this could have been a movie about drug traffic or a sport feature about boxing and rotten managers or corrupted fights organizers. But it remains a good film about football - soccer - and its untold underneath matters. Very good directing and acting, for a movie which does not speak of glory and.glitter, pretty gals and easy money, nor success or happy endings in the sunset. It's a shame that no one seems to have seen it yet.